Right after the wind started so did the rain. Watch the short video below to see how our day panned out.

I made John stop in Pemberton. Excellent coffee there. Say, 7/10. We took a drive around Gloucester National Park and ventured out of the car to look at Circular Pool on the Frankland River.

Okay, so it’s a boring photo. I just wanted to put something up after walking there n the rain.

It was frothing away at its best and some of the viewing platforms were underwater.We drove on through the rain to Walpole. There’s not much to Walpole, but it always gets a bigger dot on a map than it should.It was still raining.

Green Pools

We stopped in at Green Pools, a beautiful protected beach just west of Denmark. The boys had hoped for a dive, but we’ll come back in the morning for better conditions.

We made it to Denmark with enough daylight for the boys to surf at Ocean Beach.

And finally, today’s wildflower is a clematis. There were heaps of these near Denmark and further along the coast.

We loved being amongst these towering karri trees. They are exceptionally straight and tall. Karris are one of the tallest trees in the world, growing up to 90m. Their forests are not unlike the huge mountain ash forests near Marysville.

Karri forest near Pemberton

They use four of these trees in this area as fire lookouts. They have pegged a spiral staircase to the tree tops, and one of the famous trees most people have heard about is the Gloucester Tree, which the public may climb. We decided to do the highest of the four public trees – the Bicentennial Tree, at 65m tall, with a four level tower on the top making the total climb 75m. Let’s just say: really high. I had to go for the diagonal shot to fit it in!

The Bicentennial Tree – just bend your head over

Off they went – John, Harry and Fergus. I climbed the Gloucester Tree back in 1987 and clearly didn’t mind the airy nature of the ladder back then. This time, no thanks. Ferg went to the first platform. But John and Harry made it all the way up there.

John and Harry on the way up. Those are big steps for a kid!

It’s not for the faint hearted. John was even heard to admit to a nanosecond of height aversion. There is a pathetic piece of wire fencing around the outside, but nothing to stop you falling downwards. No harness required, no helmet, no indemnity to sign, not even any fun police to watch you fall. Quite a contrast to the safety gear the boys wore for their tunnel tour under Fremantle which included life jackets for water one metre deep! We reckon the reason for the lack of safety measures is that if it’s really scary to do, then not many people will climb! Risk reduced!

Fergus on his way down

The tree sways up to 1.5m in the wind. Yuck.

You would have heard by now if they hadn’t made it. We did it first thing in the morning, and soon after that, the wind picked up and the Ranger would have appeared from his office to close the tree for climbing. Okay, so maybe they do have some safety measures.

Here’s another shot showing the variety of the trees in the forest.

A bendy one and a spiral one!

It’s a beautiful drive leaving Margaret River. We made our left hand turn and headed east. That means we’re homebound. But there’s still heaps to do in the  next few weeks – just wait and see.

The nearby Blackwood River has a number of good white water paddling sections. I left the boys to experience some of the river at the put in at Sue’s Bridge and waited at the get out, about 17km downstream. All the rain over the past week has washed out many of the rapids, but they still had a great time. It took them less than two hours. The place I picked them up is usually a quite drivable river ford. But as you can see in the photo below, you’d be a nutter to try it today.

Blackwood River, Great North Road ford

It was all green grass, fat black cows, full dams and tall, tall trees. This area in the south west is the home of the beautiful karri trees. The Boranup Forest we drove through just south of Margaret River was just a teaser. We had even better to come.

Like where we camped, right next to the Warren River in the Warren National Park. The trees towered over us, and the wind had dropped off – for now.

John suggested a fire tonight, especially as they supplied the wood. He had a wee bit of trouble getting it started.

Determined. Tenacious. Built for endurance.

There’s no Queen’s Scout who will let a pile of wet wood get in the way of a good fire. After an hour and a half, lots of swearing, and a few restarts, there was success. We all got to sit around a rip roaring fire which John said was giving out a fair bit of warmth. In fact he said this four times – just in case we hadn’t noticed. Nice fire John.

Meanwhile, the water in the river was rising. I took this photo when we had just arrived to set up camp – about 5.30pm.

And in the morning, it looked like this.

But there was more rain to come!

We like finding our way through a maze. We’ve done a few in Victoria and one the other day up at Yallingup. With a clear sky (can you believe it?) we went to the Margaret River Maze. This is a hedge maze – the largest in Australia.

This time Harry and I won the race to the centre tower, and Fergus and John won the race out again. But not by much.

They have a few other maze and puzzle type things around the huge gardens, and a great range of native plants, so yes, I did add a number of new plants to my collection of photos.

We woke up with a puddle on our floor, and a few leaks, but given the awful night we’d had, this wasn’t so bad. Unfortunately the forecast was for more of the same. I started to wonder if this was really happening to us. We battened down the hatches (or we thought we had) and went out to see what Margaret River had to offer on a rainy day.

First we checked in at the beach at the end of the track.

Wild, wild weather

You can’t see far out to sea because…you can’t see far out to sea. And the state of the white water was like washing machine suds. Nippers would cancel training today, I’m sure of it.

The boys dragged me to a surfing photo gallery, so I fed them pies and then dragged them to one café, one art gallery, one jewellery exhibition, one silk worm farm, one fine furniture gallery and one winery. Only one of each. It’s nothing compared to how many times they’ve been surfing. We also went to Cowaramup which has made a name for itself by having these “cows” all around the town.

The Cowaramup Cows

We found ourselves right back at Dunsborough and Geographe Bay, so we went to Bunker Bay to check the surf.

Bunker Bay

I love Bunker Bay, and while John took Ferg to tackle some bigger waves, Harry and I enjoyed the lovely café on the edge of the sand.

We headed south again after this, and ended up back at Gracetown watching the surf and the weather. Again.

Gracetown’s waves being blown away

The rain kept coming and as we crossed the Gracetown Creek, John was pretty sure it was good for a paddle on the rapids. As darkness approached and the rain continued, we retreated to the pub for dinner. Hey Presto: the footy was on tv! It was warm and dry inside, and I didn’t have to cook or wash up. The boys even talked to me between quarters!